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IDC: Server Market Took a Hit in Q4 1999

The worldwide server market declined 6 percent, to $14.9 billion in revenue, according to the latest quarterly server market data from IDC. Market numbers were down in the fourth quarter of 1999 as compared to the same quarter in 1998, largely due to the impending threat of Y2K problems.

One respite from the drop-off was found in the entry server market, which posted a gain of 2 percent to $7.9 billion in Q4 1999 over Q4 1998. The midrange and high-end server markets declined 6 percent and 27 percent to $4.5 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively. IDC (www.idc.com) defines the entry server market as systems shipped with prices up to $100,000. The midrange market includes systems from $100,000 to $1 million, and the high-end market includes systems over $1 million.

"It was particularly tough selling hardware in the quarter as many customers opted for stability prior to the potential pitfalls relating to the year 2000 date change," said Steve Josselyn, director of IDC's Commercial Systems and Servers research. "We believe this softness will carry over into the first half of this year due to redeployment of excess capacity and difficult comparisons with unreasonably strong sales from a year ago."